Monthly Archives: August 2006

Wildcard port matching

In my description of HostNameComparisonMode I neglected to explicitly mention how the wildcard-ness affects your port#. In short, we will ignore the port# in our match if you have chosen StrongWildcard or WeakWildcard, and we will include the port# in our match if you choose Exact.

This behavior is especially useful when using network monitoring intermediaries. Let’s say you have an intermediary listening on TCP port 8080 that forwards traffic to your service on port 8081. The Via on the wire for net.tcp would be net.tcp://mymachine:8080/a/b/. When this intermediary forwards the packets to your service listening at port 8081, the request would succeed only for Wildcard bindings.

Actually setting up a intermediary takes a few more tweaks to your service and client that I’ll go into more detail about next week.

What IP Address(es) do we listen on?

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When listening on any socket-based protocol (http, net.tcp, UDP, SMTP, etc), there are ultimately two items that contribute to where we listen: IP Address and Port.

Your port# is usually specified in the URI of your endpoint (see RFC 2396, section 3.2.2). If a port# is not specified then each URI scheme has the option of supporting a default port# (HTTP uses 80, HTTPS uses 443, net.tcp uses 808, etc.). You can also configure a WCF endpoint to listen on
any available port# for client-side or Discovery/registry purposes.

For WCF transports, your IP Address is specified in the same manner, though this may not be obvious on the surface. If you specify an IP Address in the hostname of your URI, then we will listen on that exact IP Address. For example, net.tcp://127.0.0.1/myservice/ will only receive traffic received on the IPv4 localhost interface.

If you do not specify an IP Address in your endpoint URI, then the transport will provide a set of default IP Addresses for listening. For net.tcp, we will listen on IP_ANY (both V4 and V6 where available). For http, we will use the http.sys IP Listen List, which also defaults to INADDR_ANY and INADDR6_ANY.

For routing traffic, wildcard semantics are in effect, which means that net.tcp://localhost/a/b and net.tcp://127.0.0.1/a/b will match the same set of incoming Messages. The difference is that the first URI is exposed to all interfaces/IP Addresses while the second URI is limited solely to 127.0.0.1.

Greenlake Bar and Grill (Seattle, WA)

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Rating:

Tonight LL and I headed to the border of Greenlake and Ravenna to check out DeAnn’s new digs. Dinner plans entailed a quest to find a local restaurant for DeAnn to try. After an abortive attempt down Roosevelt to the Blue Onion Bistro (turns out they’re closed Sunday evenings), we made a loop around Greenlake’s east shore, settling in at the Greenlake Bar and Grill.

It looked like a nice spot — outdoor seating and an airy interior. Unfortunately the rest of our dining experience didn’t measure up to that initial impression. Our hostess told us our table would be about 10 minutes, and then promptly forgot about us. We took a quick self-tour and when we returned to the hostess desk she asked “Can I help you? Party of 2?” Never mind that we had just told her there were 3 of us just moments prior. No matter, we pressed on and were seated outdoors on the comfortable patio. Our waiter forgot about us for about 20 minutes, but when we finally placed our orders the food arrived quickly. The dishes were, on the whole, forgettable. My blackened fish tacos had good chunks of meat and decent flavoring, but no real kick as I would expect from a blackening rub (perhaps I was spoiled by our lunch at Gorditos earlier today). Lauren’s chicken sandwich was also just so-so, with a decently grilled chicken breast on a bun that tasted like Wonderbread and underwhelming “wasabi aioli”. I’ve gotten better Hummus and Baba Ghanoush from a can then we had with the Mediterranean Platter. Price-wise, the only thing that kept our bill somewhat reasonable was the 2-for-1 deal we have on the PRIME card.

All in all it dealt with the hunger pangs, and the outdoor seating was an enjoyable place to converse, but I’ll pass on by the Greenlake Bar and Grill next time I’m in the neighborhood.

Greenlake Bar and Grill
7200 E Greenlake Drive North
Seattle, WA
206-729-6179

Mistral (Seattle, WA)

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Rating:

Last Tuesday was Vidya‘s 25th birthday. To celebrate this monumental occasion, Lauren and I surprised her with dinner at Mistral: the best restaurant in Seattle*. Given the occasion, we kept the camera and any notetaking at bay (I’ll post food pictures after my next meal there). It will have to suffice to say we wined and dined our way through sablefish, foie gras, duck, mushrooms, exotic cheeses, fruit custards, sauternes, white Burgundies, Bordeaux blends, and numerous foams.

William Belickis (the Executive Chef) has an amazing skill in the kitchen, and also happens to be an extremely nice person. What’s even more amazing is that I found out last night he’s allergic to a number of foods (including most seafood). It’s reminiscent of Beethoven writing symphonies in his deafened state.

Over the years I’ve had a number of amazing meals at Mistral. In 2005, when the kitchen missed a beat or two, I was wondering if Mistral was starting to lose its luster. Last night I found out that, William was working in Bangkok at the time, attempting to open “Mistral Thailand”. The Bangkok experiment turned out to be a bust, and Thailand’s loss is our gain — last night Mistral was hitting on all cylinders. They recently hired a new pastry chef, and the desserts have reached new heights of spendor. The food is reinvigorated, and ever course was a delight. This is the Mistral I remember from over the years, and I’m very happy to say that it’s back!

A meal at Mistral is a full evening (3 hours or more), and certainly carries a hefty price tag. But if you have an occasion to celebrate, close your eyes, open your wallet, and enjoy a sublime seven course experience of food and wine. It’s a night you will never forget.

TIP: You can also get to know William (and check out a smaller scale take on the food) at one of his Lunch classes. I’ve had a few enjoyable Saturday afternoons in Mistral’s kitchen learning how to stuff zucchini flowers or blend corn soup. The classes are reasonably priced, and also include a 3 course meal showcasing the dishes you learn about.

*I haven’t yet been to The Herb Farm which also has quite a following

UPDATE (10/15/2006): Went to the Herb Farm last night (thanks Ilene!). The food was very good, but I still attest that William’s restaurant deserves the Kenny crown for best Seattle restaurant

Mistral
113 Blanchard Street
Seattle, WA 98121
206-770-7799
5:30PM-midnight (Dinner only)

A Bachelor's Tour of Chicago

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Last weekend LL and I were out of town for our respective “last hurrah”s (less than a month until the wedding!). Now that the jet-lag and hangover have finally cleared up, I’ll offer some recommendations for future Chicago bachelor-party goers based on a, uhm, partial recap of the weekend.

We took over Ray’s B&B in Bucktown. This was a great homebase for a large group. They make a fantastic breakfast to order, and have lots of fun common areas. In general it felt like staying at a good friend’s house — you get free reign of the kitchen, projection TV, poker chips, etc.

In Bucktown I had one of the best margaritas in my life at Cafe Laguardia. I recommend ordering by the pitcher. They also have tasty Cuban sandwiches.

Friday evening we kicked things off with drinks at the Signature Lounge. The Signature Lounge is on the 96th floor of the Hancock tower. Given its potential as a big tourist destination, it’s refreshingly unpretentious. Order an iced coffee martini and enjoy sweeping views of the city and Lake Michigan. To quote my friend Mark, you can see Iowa from the Western facing windows. 🙂

Drinks at the Hancock are also a great way to occupy the 2 hours needed to get a table for 14 at Giordano’s Pizza, where mozzarella is piled on by the pound and they don’t take reservations. Solid pizza, beer, and fried appetizers (size warning: the appetizer “sampler” easily covered all 14 of us).

If you are in Chicago on a blistering hot weekend (it was pushing 100 degrees when we were there), then I highly recommend taking a boat out onto Lake Michigan, which is where we spent Saturday afternoon.

Saturday evening we had a fabulous dinner at Adobo Grill. This is the kind of place we could use to advance the Seattle scene. Innovative food, and great service. They handled our large party with ease and the smaller parties also seemed quite happy (perhaps some of the joy is due to the 100 different tequilas available, your call). “Upscale” food and decor but still reasonable prices, Adobo Grill is definitely worth a visit. And if you have tickets to Second City, it’s only stumbling distance away!

Chicago easily outlasts Seattle’s 2AM curtain calls, and The Apartment is a fun place to while away the late night hours. The concept is supposed to be that of visiting your friends huge loft apartment. It’s a little kitsch, but still draws a large hipster crowd.

No Chicago visit is complete without a stop at the Art Institute. This gorgeous air conditioned building was a great chill activity to both counterbalance a weekend of debauchery and escape the heat wave. And you can reenact parts of Ferris Bueller while you’re there. Worth checking out even if some of the women won’t believe you when you say you went to the Art Institute during your Bachelor Party weekend.